Commander Jones Explains Silence from Officials on the Cebada Shooting

In recent days, social media has been swamped with comments, opinions and harsh criticisms against the Government regarding how they had responded to the recent shooting of the minor in the Cebada area. The criticism was that whilst Guatemala’s President and media were releasing statements and interviews on the media, Belize’s authorities were silent. Brigadier General David Jones spoke on this aspect.

DAVID JONES

“I wouldn’t try to go back and forth with what the Guatemalans did say, bear in mind they have the advantage of getting information out first. The area where that incident happened is just a few minutes away from the border, it’s just about a minute walk and you are in Guatemala. It was an over to ten to twelve hour hike for our soldiers to get out of that area to come out here so they will have the advantage in that particular incident along that border because they can quickly dash across and start to put their stories across. Now the conclusion of the investigation hasn’t even been done yet and they have passed their information. Information is not necessarily facts, it’s best to do information until you ascertain from different sides of the story and do a thorough investigation until you put out the information. I’m not to bothered that we took some time after them because they had the advantage of time and space.”

I wouldn’t try to go back and forth with what the Guatemalans did say, bear in mind they have the advantage of getting information out first. The area where that incident happened is just a few minutes away from the border, it’s just about a minute walk and you are in Guatemala. It was an over to ten to twelve hour hike for our soldiers to get out of that area to come out here so they will have the advantage in that particular incident along that border because they can quickly dash across and start to put their stories across. Now the conclusion of the investigation hasn’t even been done yet and they have passed their information. Information is not necessarily facts, it’s best to do information until you ascertain from different sides of the story and do a thorough investigation until you put out the information. I’m not to bothered that we took some time after them because they had the advantage of time and space. The shooting incident occurred April 20 and the first official statement coming from Belize’s authorities was heard on Monday, April 25 via a press conference at the Belize Biltmore Plaza Hotel.